I’m currently reading The girl with the dragon tattoo – three years after the rest of the English-speaking world, I know. For me, that’s cutting edge.

It’s pretty good so far. Well, the actual printed text is pretty good. I wish I could say the same of the pencilled note left in the margin of page 210 by a previous library user:

Love that full stop after the 'I'. Assertive or what?

So, our unknown pedant appears to have a problem with “older than Anita and me”. Let’s see. The usual rule when dealing with a …and I or …and me situation is to remove the bit immediately before I or me. Then you know which is correct.

In this case, older than I happens to be more grammatically correct… if you wish to sound like Stephen Fry in full Jeeves mode, that is. Since the character isn’t an Oxford don, this is an informal conversation and there is more to the art of translation than being grammatically correct at all times, I’m firmly in the translator’s camp on this one.

Plus, anyone who writes in a library book – for whatever reason – is a vandal and a cretin.